A most valuable article on " Cooking and Y famines
" by Miss E. M. Delf, D.Sc., appears in the April number of Science Progress, edited by Sir Ronald Ross (Murray, 6s. net). Miss Deli sums up the results of recent research, conducted by herself and by others, concerning the effect of cooking on the three different. vitamines. It is " a safe general rule that, so far as its vitamine content is concerned, the less food is cooked the better." Stews, even if they are partly composed of fresh vegetables, cease to have any anti-scorbutic value if they are kept cooking for hours. " All vegetables used in stews should either be cooked first and added just before serving, or should be finely chopped, thrown in the stew at the last moment, and served after five or ten minutes' boiling." We may remark that, while English cooks are often accused of not knowing how to cook vegetables, their simple methods appear after all to be truly scientific when compared to the Continental methods ; the ordinary French practice of cooking vegetables like sorrel twice over apparently destroys the valuable vitamines. The addition of soda to the cooking water is undesirable. Peas; beans, and lentils should be soaked in cold water for twelve hours, and then kept in a damp place for two days until they germinate, thus developing the anti-scorbutic vitamine ; they can then be cooked very quickly. " The value of canned vegetables as regards scurvy and growth-promoting properties must be regarded as negligible." Margarine, which is made chiefly from vegetable oils, is more suitable for adults than for children, because in its manufacture the particular vitamine the absence of which occasions rickets is expelled. Miss Deli's conclusions deserve to be made widely known. Scientific cookery should- have most beneficial effects on the nation's health.
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